Sunday, June 22, 2008

What Happened to America's Hopefullness, Abounding Strength and Vitality?

2008:Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance. The sense of helplessness is even reflected in this year's presidential election. Each contender offers a sense of order — and hope.

2008:There is something both startling and disturbing about the gloom that has settled over Wall Street and the country in general. In fact, looking back over the past century, it would be a stretch to rank the current problems as especially notable or dramatic. Something else is going on – namely a cultural rut of pessimism that is draining our collective energy, blinding us to possibilities, and eroding our position in the world.

It wasn't always that way. Here's what Britian historian, politician and constitutional lawyer Lord James Bryce said about America 120 years ago:

1888:America excites an admiration which must be felt upon the spot to be understood. The hopefulness of her people communicates itself to one who moves among them, and makes him perceive that the graver faults of politics may be far less dangerous there than they would be in Europe. A hundred times in writing this book have I been disheartened by the facts I was stating; a hundred times has the recollection of the abounding strength and vitality of the nation chased away these tremors.

I think we've had it so good for so long now that we've forgotten what true doom and gloom really entails. Of course, our attitudes are encouraged by opportunistic politicians of both parties, all to eager to capitalize on any slight feeling of unease in order to attempt to blame their political advesaries.

Then, of course, the media is all to complicit to repeat their intellectual dishonesty without daring to take an actual objective look, without daring to throw perspective into it.

I think the most intersting thing about the first paragraph is that the government has played a role in each of the things being listed as causing the malaise. I know of no private levee businesses, the airline and health care industries are riddled with government interventionist rules and regulations, the education system is directly subsidized by the government, and the state is responsible for our foreign wars.

This malaise may be the product of what Milton Friedman said in the youtube video Dr. Perry recently posted, and also what can be found in the writings of von Mises, which is that the growth of government and its influence in the lives of private individuals is essentially corosive and stiffling, and because government interventions typically fail and cause more severe problems later there is a natural tendency for diminished liberty and diminished freedom.

It's this issue, the growth of government, that has me most concerned about the upcoming presidential election. This is probably a very pivotal moment of our history, one that can only be fully appreciated after its effects have had time to play themselves out. Unfortunately I am skeptical that either candidate believes in small government.

food,gas,rent,housing,evrything expensive. why do you think this is? we all have an opinion on this. why is no one talking about birth control? maybe were runing out of natural resources because there are to many people in the world. people are having 6 kids and those 6 kids have 3 kids. 18 kids. those 18 have just 2 and thats 36. get the point? just another opinion, everyone has one.

It has been crushed by the rights and regulations that were taken away when our "great" leaders started fearing their own people and the economy's ability to bounce back without the loopholes for opportunity that they felt the need to create and probably took advantage of themselves... but who knows.